Abstract

Albendazole (ALB) is a potent benzimidazole anthelmintic used in the treatment of human intestinal helmintiasis as well as of hytatid cysts and neurocysticercosis. Two rapid, simple, sensitive, and selective spectrophotometric methods are presented for the determination of ALB in pharmaceuticals. The methods are based on the formation of dichloromethane soluble 1 : 1 ion-pair complexes (ALB : dye) formed between ALB and sulfonphthalein dyes, bromophenol blue BPB, (method A) and bromothymol blue BTB, (method B). The complexes formed were measured directly (without extraction) at 445 nm (method A) and 460 nm (method B). The experimental conditions were optimized and the systems obey Beer’s law for 1.5–21.0 and 2.0–32.0 μg mL−1 ALB for method A and method B respectively. The molar absorptivity and Sandell's sensitivity were calculated to be L mol−1 cm−1 and 0.0209 ng cm−2, and L mol−1 cm−1 and 0.0350 ng cm−2 using BPB and BTB, respectively. The limits of detection and quantification were calculated to be 0.01 and 0.03, and 0.16, and 0.49 μg mL−1 using BPB and BTB, respectively. The relative standard values for intra-day and inter-day precision were less than 3%, and the accuracy was better than 3% for both methods.